Naruto of the Scorched Leaf
by AeroZalen
Summary: After meeting Kyuubi at a young age, Naruto is gifted with a special power which he uses to reach his dream of becoming Hokage. Scorch Release Naruto, Confident Hinata (Later), and a whole lot of excitement. Expect short chapters.
1. Run!

Naruto exhaled deeply as he turned the corner, hiding behind a trashcan which was tipped over. He heard someone coming quickly, and decided to hide inside the trashcan, ironic considering he was commonly referred to as trash by the civilians and some shinobi of his home village of Konoha. He tried to be as quiet as possible as he heard rapid footsteps go by.

After a few moments of silence, he exhaled, thanking Kami that he got away from the mobs. For as long as he could remember, they always gathered together on this day, Naruto's birthday, to hunt him down and try and 'kill the demon' as they called it. Today happened to be his eighth birthday, which he had spent in relative solitude, with the exception of his Jiji taking him out for a bowl of ramen at Teuchi's ramen stand, who had practically become his second family, although he didn't really have a first family.

This year for his birthday, he had asked Jiji if he could enroll in the Academy, which was where every shinobi hopeful enrolled for four years to learn everything they would need to know for life as a shinobi.

"I don't really think you'd fit that life, Naruto-kun." Jiji had said, and Naruto had run off in anger, only to run into a drunken group of people, who yelled at him and began chasing him down in the streets like a common piece of trash. This was how he got stuck in his current predicament.

Naruto peaked around the side of the trashcan, only for a rogue civilian to be passing by who saw him and called out to the gathering mob of would-be vigilantes. Before Naruto could react, a man picked up the trashcan, throwing it down the alley as it clattered against the stones. Naruto was thrown out of the metal deathtrap which crashed into his frail body, his arm giving a sickening 'crrk' as it hit the wall, followed by his head. Naruto slumped to the ground as his vision flickered black, and he fell unconscious.

Naruto blinked his eyes open, expecting to find death staring him in the face. While he wasn't correct, it was a different view than he expected. Leaky pipes dripping water that set ripples in the dingy water he was sitting in, moldy walls and surfaces that sent Naruto's nose crinkling at the slightest provocation, and a giant set of bars which joined together as a gate in the center which a piece of paper that read 'Seal'.

All this and more was what met Naruto's first glance around what would become known as his mindscape. And tying it all together as the massive fox on the other side of the bars, crouching low, with a low growl coming from his throat that set Naruto's nerves on edge.

"He-hello." Naruto said; waving fearfully as the fox's growl grew louder. "My name is Naruto. What's yours, and do you know where we are?" Naruto asked innocently, averting direct line of sight with the fox, who simply glared at him, baring his teeth.

"I know your name, boy! Now if you would be so kind as to remove this annoying piece of paper, or come closer, you look very cold in that water." The fox offered up, like bait as Naruto inched closer until the fox pounced, his claw barely missing Naruto's little body as it split his shirt in two. Naruto fell backwards, crawling through the water as he tried to escape the fox.

"Ohh, so close. Your idiocy leaves much to be desired, but I suppose it does serve its purpose." The fox said as he returned to crouching as a tail came forwards, inching across the watery floor, followed by another tail, and another, until nine tails were inching ever closer to Naruto, who started to cry out and try and run, before he realized that he felt more at ease with dying to this giant demon than the villagers of Konoha.

The fox seemed to notice his sudden change of heart as the tails converged, all touching Naruto's chest, just above his heart. The fox could feel his pitiful heartbeat through the thin layers of skin. He had planned to kill the boy, but now that he could see just how pitiful, and ready to die Naruto was, he had second thoughts.

"Why do you not run, boy, do you no longer fear me? Is the mighty Kyuubi no Yoko not a thing to haunt the nightmares of the young any longer?" The fox, now self-identified as the Kyuubi asked, his voice a growl which Naruto almost wet himself at.

"The-the Kyuubi, but I thought th-that you were…" Naruto trailed off as he looked down, realizing that he was looking right into the Kyuubi's eyes, which were a strange wine-red, surprisingly regal compared to the paintings of the village.

"You thought what, that I was… dead?" Kyuubi finished, his tails pulling away one by one as they curled around his snout until only his eyes were visible through the fur. "As if that sorry excuse of a human could kill me, the powerful Kyuubi. That's not to say that he didn't seal me into a newborn youth; such a weak and squishy vessel for one such as myself." Kyuubi said as he sent a minor amount of KI at Naruto, just enough to make him quiver like a leaf as he tried desperately to stand.

"I'm sorry." Naruto said, looking downcast at his reflection in the water. He wanted to be a great and powerful shinobi, like Jiji, or his hero the Yondaime, but how could he inspire others to believe in him, when he didn't even believe in himself. This took the Kyuubi by surprise, something that happened maybe once in a lifetime.

"Sorry. That must be one of your pathetic human words like regret. Demons never have regrets, when we do something; we have every intention of following things through with no regards to what others think." Kyuubi said, his own vanity coming into play as he lifted his head minorly, as if looking down his nose at the most noble of humans.

"No, I'm sorry that you got stuck in a weak vessel, something outside of your control." Naruto said, walking up to the Kyuubi's cell as he stood just outside of the bar. Kyuubi raised an eyebrow, lifting a claw to Naruto's chest as he placed the tip against the blonde's skin. Naruto's gaze didn't waver, nor did he hesitate as he took another step forwards, and a drop of blood tinged Kyuubi's claw tip.

"Pity, another one of your pathetic human emotions. Though I suppose your statement, and demonstration, does bear some merit. It is nothing for a lion to kill a mouse, not enough a thousand mice, but for a single lion to take down an elephant, it is revered by its pack." Kyuubi said, standing on his haunches as he dragged his bloody claw through the water as he carved out something in the stone.

"I will help you, boy. I will give you access to a lost power, and give you permission to use my youki whenever, however, I will not give it over freely. If you want it, you must temper and weather my influences when using it, just as the best blade must be forged by one's own hands. I will assist you until you achieve that horrendous title of 'Hokage' and then we will fight each other, to the death, and when my power consumes your weak human body, I will be revered across the Elemental Nations as ruler supreme!" Kyuubi said, allowing the single blood drop to drip into the carved seal on the floor, before he bit his lip, allowing the blood to intermingle with Naruto's in the seal as Naruto felt his body awakening.

As Naruto awakened, Kyuubi huffed, going back to sleep, mumbling under his breath, "Good luck, Kit."

Naruto opened his eyes, only to see a steak knife descending towards his head, he crossed his arms, trying to fend off the attack only for a ring of fire to sprout from the ground around him, shooting into the air around him, enveloping the wielder of the knife as he screamed in pain, his body twisting and contorting in the throws of death as the watching civilians stood still with shock and fear while Naruto cried, the screams echoing in his ears.

Naruto kept crying, even when he felt himself being lifted up, and his body tingle, the sensations of the **Shushin** as he felt a hand rub his back, and a gentle voice whisper to him.

"It's okay now, Naruto-kun, don't worry, the villagers won't bother you any more. I promise you, on my title as Hokage, they won't harm you ever again." The Sandaime whispered as he rocked Naruto, until the blonde's tears stopped, and his body went slack with sleep, although he still tightly clutched to the Hokage's robes, anchoring himself to the world and his dream while he slept.

The Hokage looked down on him, smiling faintly as he looked to a picture, praying for forgiveness for letting the villagers do this year after year. Reaching into his robes, he pulled out an envelope, which contained Naruto's enrollment letter to The Academy, his first semester starting in one week.

**A/N: Well, I finished it guys. Now I know what you're thinking, because I'm psychic, duh. Naruto has one of my personal two favorite kenkai genkai, the Scorch Release, or at least my take on it. Naruto is able to start fires with his mind, provided its within his sphere of control, which is currently at about a foot away. By Graduation, it'll be about 5 feet, and 10 feet by Chunnin Finals. Also, Naruto will have some interactions with the Kyuubi, but they won't be buddy-buddy, more like how Sasuke and Naruto interact in canon. Kyuubi is only helping Naruto to get more power so it'll make him look better when he beats him so utterly. Now this is a NaruHina story, my personal favorite pairing, so expect some non-Sakura worship. Have a good day guys.**

**P.S.- I wanted to add this before posting. TIL that foxes are very loyal pets, but absolutely detest all reptiles, snakes especially, which they bear an intense hatred for. The hatred goes so far that if you smell like a snake, a fox will never trust you, even one you've raised since its birth. The whole Naruto-Orochimaru thing finally makes sense guys!**


	2. Hello, My Name is Death

Naruto hit the ground with a grunt, his covers wrapping around his alarm clock as it fell of the nightstand, hitting him in the head. He groaned as he rubbed his head, the clock still ringing incessantly as it had went off moments earlier, waking Naruto up for his first day of school.

Naruto had spent the past week trying to get a handle on his new fire powers, only to learn that he could barely start a small fire on his fingertip unless he concentrated with all his attention on his target. As such, he had spent several hours awake last night working on fixing this problem before falling into his bed around 3:00 in the morning, giving him only three hours of sleep for the day as he yawned, groping for his alarm clock.

Only to leap to his feet as his clock had went off an hour later than Naruto had intended, putting him almost ten minutes late for his first day. He grabbed the nearest clothes he could find, his trademark orange jacket along with a black undershirt, and his also orange track pants. He grabbed his goggles from the corner of his couch as he ran out of the room, barely remembering to grab a cup of instant ramen, filling the cup with water as he ran out the door, using the tiny flame conjured at his fingertip to warm the cup, and cook the ramen. He had to make a quick turn around as he realized he had forgotten his shoes.

Meanwhile, Iruka Umino sighed as he looked at this year's group of students. A pink-haired girl and platinum blonde were butting heads, arguing over another student, Sasuke Uchiha, a raven-haired boy in the third row, stuck in the middle of the desk as Sakura, the pinkie, and Ino, the blonde argued.

Checking his roll sheet, Iruka found a boy sleeping on his desk, his partner eating a bag of chips as fragments of the chips were sent flying through the air around him, Shikamaru & Choji. Next to the pair was a bubbly girl with brunette hair done up in a stack that resembled a mountain, Aimee Gakinjo, a daughter of a Civilian Council member.

In the front row, two girls, or maybe boys, who were most definitely twins were playing cards with each other, a brunette boy with a feral look about him trying to get either one's attention as a tiny white puppy popped out of his jacket, Kiba, the feral boy, and Nerissa and Ferissa, the twins. Looking at his roll sheet, he saw someone had scrawled in a second name next to Kiba's, Akamaru.

In the upper right corner, a boy practically covered by a giant overcoat was watching the rest of his classmates with little to no emotion discernable to Iruka. Shino Aburame. The seat next to him was occupied by a girl with short blue hair whose eyes flitted about, her index fingers pushing against one another as she seemed to be watching for something. Hinata Hyuuga.

That something happened when the door flew open, causing the twins to jump, Nerissa bumping into Kiba who fell over, falling into Sakura's lap as she had a panic attack before punching Kiba in the head, yelling 'Pervert', carefully removing Akamaru first. However, Kiba's fall had knocked Sakura over, as she head butted Sasuke, who fell into Ino knocking the pair into the floor with Sasuke on top of Ino who passed out from hitting her head.

Hinata giggled behind a hand at the line of students taken down like a row of dominoes, other students mirroring her giggles behind their hands, some just outright laughing. The whole situation was topped off by Akamaru looking around and yipping at his master.

The whole room looked to see the instigator of the falls, only to see a boy with a pair of goggles on his head, and wild blonde hair. An eyesore of an orange jacket and track pants only added to his image, and his cerulean blue eyes topped it all off as he looked around shyly, tiptoeing up the stairs as if no one could see him as he took the last open seat next to Hinata.

"Hello, my name is Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto introduced himself while Hinata just stared at him, blinking as she introduced herself as well, Shino following.

"Excuse me, but could you come down here." Iruka asked Naruto, who nodded, taking the walk of shame down the stairs to the teacher's desk, standing in front of it feeling like a disobedient child.

"Who are you? I don't have you on my roll, and I won't accept someone who can't arrive on time." Iruka said as he crossed his arms, waiting for Naruto to make some excuse.

Instead Naruto asked for a moment as he began rummaging through his clothes a pulled out: two cans of paint, one red, the other yellow, three rubber bands, a peanut shell, a inch-long pencil, 1.75 in change, an apple which he took a bite of before cringing, a pack of cigarettes which Iruka confiscated, a pipe also confiscated, an orange book also confiscated, and finally a box of dog treats which Akamaru confiscated. Thinking for a second, he rolled up his pants leg, reaching up the pants leg as he pulled out the envelope containing his admittance letter to The Academy, with details leading Naruto to this room, along with a list of supplies, all signed by the Hokage's signature.

"Fine, go back to your seat, but know this, I won't tolerate any more tardiness Mr. Uzumaki, do you understand?" Naruto nodded as he hurried back up the steps, leaving the pile of his belongings in front of Iruka's desk as Iruka got a tick mark before sitting in his seat, which somehow got repainted red at some point as he ordered the students to turn to page 93 in their textbooks.

10 hours later, Naruto stretched as he left the classroom, recollecting everything he'd dropped this morning. This caused him to be the last one to leave almost an hour later than everyone else as Iruka decided to lecture him on the values of punctuality.

This led to Naruto making a new rule to apply to his life. If he couldn't pronounce it, it wasn't worth learning.

That said; he was currently engrossed sorting through everything he'd learned today, including skills ranging from accuracy to the history of Konoha to sparring. He felt like he'd stumble across a hidden library filled with tons of books to read on any subject he wanted to learn about.

However, Naruto would say that the worst part of the day was the test Iruka-sensei had given them to see where everyone stood on the many aspects of being a shinobi. Naruto got dead last in almost ever respect, except stealth, he was second-place in stealth, beating even Sasuke Uchiha. The only one to beat him was his desk mate, Shino Aburame, but Naruto didn't sweat it, he was just happy that he was good at something besides getting beat up.

So, sitting down on a swing, he pulled a small book out of his jacket titled 'The Must-Know Clans of Konoha' as he opened to the first page, focusing on absorbing the words as he read about each one of the prominent clans of Konoha, including some of their most famous members such as Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, Tsunade Senju all from the Senju clan which had very few remaining members left.

The next clan he read about was the Uchiha, intrigued by his fellow classmate, Sasuke. He learned that they were once considered the rivals of the Senju, leading all the way back to the founding of Konoha by Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. The latter was among the famous members along with Itachi Uchiha, and Shisui Uchiha. Their more current rivals were the Hyuuga, spawned over who had the more powerful Dojutsu, the Uchiha having the Sharingan. The book didn't go into much detail about the Sharingan, most likely because it might be a clan secret kind of thing.

Naruto turned the page to the Hyuuga clan, only to hear a cry as he stood up quickly, dropping his book as he ran towards the cry. He rounded a tree to see a girl surrounded by three older boys, maybe 9 or 10.

"You're a pretty one. How about you go somewhere with me, and we can have fun." The boy in the middle, the leader most likely, said, grabbing the girl's forearm as he tried to pull her closer, only for the girl to protest and try and fight him. Instead, his two lackeys grabbed her from behind, binding her arms to her side as the leader got in her face.

Naruto reacted, running at the boy as he tackled him to the ground, both boys rolling in the grass as they tried to get the upper hand. Naruto got on top, punching the boy across his cheek, but before he could hit him again, one of the other boys wrapped his arms around him, picking him up as he tried to wriggle loose.

"Just stay out of this, demon boy." The leader said from the ground.

The last boy came up; punching Naruto in the face, but Naruto shrugged it off. He was used to beatings and bleeding due to his previous experiences, so just to spite the boy, he spit the blood out, right in his face as he picked up his feet, kicking outwards as the boy stumbled backwards. Next, Naruto threw his head back, breaking the last bully's nose as he released him.

Naruto hit the ground, his breath leaving his body as the bullies got back up, kicking Naruto in the side as he tried to curl up and protect his body. Reaching out, he grabbed one's ankle, and willed a tiny flame to blink into life at his fingertip as the boy's pants leg caught aflame, the boy dropping to the ground. Naruto used the momentary pause in the assault to get his hands under him as he rolled to the side, standing hesitantly as he put up his fists, prepared to continue the fight, despite the fact the right eye was almost swollen shut, and several cuts littered his cheek from the rocky ground.

As the first boy came at him, Naruto stepped forwards, aiming to hit him as hard as he could once in the cheek as the boy crumpled to the ground, rubbing his cheek as he cried out at the pain as he spit out globules of blood. Naruto wiped his bleeding face with a sleeve, glaring at the last boy, who fell backwards as he ran away, his friends doing the same, screaming, "Run, it's the Demon!"

"That's right, go away, and stay away!" Naruto yelled, sticking out his tongue as he turned to the girl. Only for the girl to be being dragged away by an older male who glared at Naruto with pale eyes.

"Stay away from that one Hinata-sama. He's dangerous, and trouble." The man ordered as the girl was pulled away, only to smile and wave at Naruto, whose mind finally clicked as he realized that it was his classmate Hinata that he'd just saved. A strange sense of accomplishment welled up in him at saving someone who at least seemed to appreciate it on the surface.

At the same time, he pulled out a sheet of paper, using his bloody nail to write on it. The title read 'To Do List of Improvement'

1) Learn more about clans of Konoha.

2) Improve Taijutsu skills.

3) Make friends.

He put a smiley face with his chibi face signature next to the third one.

**A/N: Another chapter done guys. Now then, to address some questions that I'm sure you want to ask. My take on the Scorch Style is that the user can make fire at will, which I feel fits with Naruto's jutsu style in canon. He has his Shadow Clones, one hand seal, Rasengan, no seals, Sage Mode, no seals; basically all his best moves are no seals except for the Summoning Jutsu. Now, as the summary should say, this is a SmartNaruto story, but he will read a lot of books to get smarter. Also, I hinted at some pairings later on, see if you can guess which ones.**


	3. So Black & White Makes Red

Naruto did it; he survived all these years until today, Graduation day at The Academy. He made it through four years of Mizuki-teme, four years of Sasuke-teme, and four years of endless practice and studying to maintain a mid-level grade in his classes, although he was still dead last in shurikan and kunai practice, a far cry to his third place in book smarts and second place in stealth. And he certainly couldn't pass a jutsu test, which was why he was dreading today.

He could do the **Henge** okay, and his **Kawarimi** wasn't the best, but it would pass. No, what caught him every time was the **Clone Jutsu**, which he couldn't make a decent one to save his life, or pass finals, apparently.

But more on that later, for now Naruto wanted to dwell on the happy things of his Academy years. Such as how he'd managed to get Kyuubi to speak to him, and help him a minor degree more. Kyuubi thought his clone problem was probably something to do with his record-breaking chakra levels, where as making a clone took such a tiny amount, it was like trying to separate a single drop of water from an ocean.

In his off time, Naruto had read through a massive series of books on famous clans of each and every shinobi village, their bloodlines, and had actually discovered his own clan, the Uzumaki who hailed from Uzushiogakure, which had fallen in the Second Shinobi War to the combined efforts of Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri. They were famed for their Fuinjutsu skills, and Naruto had added that to his list of self-improvement.

Speaking of his list of self-improvement, he had made some progress on the first, second, and third things. He had learned about several Taijutsu styles, although none really fit him, so Naruto decided to develop his own style, something that would make the villagers acknowledge him surely.

Also, he had added Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino, to some minor part, to his friends list along with Hinata. Speaking of the bluenette, Naruto glanced to his side to see his female friend, and secret crush, looking away from him. As he turned back to glare at the back of Sasuke's head, Hinata glanced at him, blushing at the way his eyes caught the light.

Ever since he had helped her with the bullies all those years ago, the Hyuuga girl had held Naruto in high regards, developing a crush on the blonde, although he never seemed to notice. This may have been in some small part due to Hinata inability to assert herself and Naruto's thick head. As for why she never noticed he harbored the same feelings for her, maybe she never thought Naruto would return her feelings and waved off the glances as figments of her imagination.

But back to Naruto's inner turmoil. He had managed to pass the written portion of the Finals, along with the weapons practice, and he almost had the Taijutsu, but ultimately failed due to his lack of an actual style. So he had to pass the Jutsu portion, and he'd have passed the Finals, and be a fully-fledged shinobi of Konoha. Of course, that meant he'd have to pull something out of his arse if he wanted to get past the **Clone Jutsu**.

He heard his name called as he went to the front of the room, standing at attention in front of Iruka-sensei, his teacher, and Mizuki-teme, the teacher's assistant who had it in for Naruto. Holding the position for ten seconds, he stood relaxed as he mentally prepped himself.

Iruka raised his eyebrows. _Since when has Naruto been able to sit still for more than five seconds, let alone stand at attention for ten seconds?_ Iruka wondered as he called out the name of the first required jutsu.

"Okay Naruto, show us the **Henge**." Iruka instructed; his pen at the ready at check or X the box next to each jutsu.

Naruto nodded, channeling the necessary chakra as a puff of smoke surrounded him, and as it blew away a child-like Naruto was standing there, along with a stuff fox tucked under one arm and sucking the thumb of his other hand as most of the female inhabitants of the room mentally 'aww'ed, Hinata resisting the urge to run down and squeeze the chibi version of Naruto to her chest.

Changing back, Naruto made the peace sign with one hand, the thumbs up with his other hand, loudly proclaiming his dream of becoming Hokage.

"Hn, as if the Dobe could be Hokage." Sasuke said, turning his attention to the window as he refused to look at Naruto, as if denying his existence. This infuriated Naruto as he jumped right into the next jutsu.

Throwing a water balloon up over his head, he used **Kawarimi** to switch places with Sasuke as the Uchiha was doused in orange paint, his only discernable feature being his onyx eyes on the now solid orange blob.

After asking Sasuke to resume his seat, the arrogant Uchiha snorting, switching clothes, all the girls, sans Hinata, blushed at a shirtless Sasuke. The Uchiha walked up to Naruto, telling him to 'get out of his seat'. When Naruto refused, Sasuke went to punch him, only for the blonde to pull another trick as he once again used the **Kawarimi** to switch places with another unsuspecting classmate, this time it was Sakura, who was knocked unconscious.

"Nice shot, Teme!" Naruto yelled from the front of the room, where he had resumed his place as he was mentally sweating. After managing to get the angry Uchiha under control, Iruka turned to Naruto, awaiting him to performing the **Clone Jutsu**, Mizuki watching Naruto contempt as he was crossing his fingers, wishing that Naruto would screw up.

Mizuki got his wish as smoke enveloped Naruto, only for two horrible clones to appear as sickly Naruto's with smoke rising from their heads before they puffed out of existence. Naruto bowed his head in shame, turning to look at Hinata, who chose that moment to look at Naruto. Both sides blushed before the intense stare which last maybe 2-3 seconds tops, became too much, and Hinata looked away. Naruto took this as a sign that Hinata was disappointed in him as he ran out of the room, tears stinging at the corners of his eyes, Mizuki grinning deviously as he offered to go after Naruto while the rest of the class completed the test.

Meanwhile, Naruto was outside, swinging in the single swing on the tree outside, trying to act like he wasn't torn up inside. Inside of his head, he could hear the Kyuubi complaining, while simultaneously assuring him that he couldn't help that he could perform something as pathetic as an _illusionary_ clone. Naruto general tried to ignore the demon fox inside of him, but lately he had been getting better about helping him.

Hearing footsteps, he looked up into Mizuki-teme's face, which currently had a mask of care on it. Crouching down beside him, Mizuki looked at with sympathy, although Naruto had learned how to read people, a gift he'd picked up while trying to survive on his own, and using this skill, Naruto could tell that Mizuki wished he would disappear from the face of the Earth.

"Hey Naruto, don't let it get you down. Iruka can be a little strict sometimes, but you need to understand that he just wants the best for you. His parents were killed in the Kyuubi attack, and he hasn't had any family since then. I think, he may see a little bit of himself in you, both of you being orphans, and he wants you to show everyone that you can be exactly what you proclaim to be to everyone everyday." Mizuki said, his kind voice surprising Naruto as he thought that maybe Mizuki wasn't all that bad.

"So, how about I give you one more chance. It's a hard test using your applied stealth skills, but I think you can do it. If you decide to do it, I'll put in a good word with Iruka, and try and have him overturn his decision about you failing. All you have to do is…" Mizuki said, bending close to Naruto as he whispered into the younger blonde's ear, Naruto inner warnings going off, but his desperation to become a shinobi overrode them.

Later that night, a shadowy figure leapt across the rooftops of Konoha, a large scroll strapped to his back as he jumped over the wall surrounding Konoha. How he managed to escape the mass multitude of ANBU trying to catch him still amazed the Hokage, who was watching the whole thing through his magic crystal ball.

Landing in a large clearing, Naruto looked around, making sure that no one was within the vicinity as he dropped his guard, sitting down and unrolling the scroll to the first jutsu learned, which happened to be the **Shadow Clone Jutsu**. Luckily, he had spent the past years cramming a multitude of book reading into a single night and knew how to scan passages for the key phrases.

"Okay, so I make this hand seal, and let's see if it works." Naruto mumbled as he jumped to his feet, making a unique cross seal as a perfect copy of himself appeared next to him. Looking at it, he poked its face, the clone doing the same to Naruto before both leapt with joy at learning a physical clone jutsu, high-fiving each other in the process.

"Okay, let's move on, I still should have some time before anyone finds me, but just in case, clone, umm, me, go keep watch and dispel if you see anyone." Naruto said, sitting back down as he unrolled the scroll to the next entry while his clone nodded, leaping into the tree line as it began keeping watch, Naruto making several more clones which separated into a wide circle surrounding the clearing while he scanned the next entry.

Within five minutes, one of the clones dispelled as ordered, warning Naruto as he closed up the scroll, standing up as he appeared to lean on the scroll like a cane, as he began breathing heavily, faking exhaustion as Iruka landed in the clearing.

"Naruto! Do you know what you've done?" Iruka yelled, as he advanced on Naruto, who gave his signature grin and peace sign as several Shadow Clones landed in the clearing, backing Naruto up with their own peace signs and grins.

"What?" Iruka said, stopping, confused. Just this morning Naruto couldn't make two half-decent clones, and now he had 11 surrounding him, and from the looks of things, they were even solid clones to boot. Spying the scroll beside Naruto, he connected the dots. "You managed to learn the **Shadow Clone Jutsu**? But that's a B-Rank Kinjutsu, it should be impossible for an Academy, no even a Genin, and most Chunin wouldn't be able to make more than one Shadow Clone at best." Iruka said, clearly confused.

"Yeah, but I have really massive reserves, that must be why I can't use the **Clone Jutsu**, huh Iruka-sensei? Anyways, I managed to get the scroll out without being caught, which means I pass, right?" Naruto said, and Iruka felt his heart drop. Naruto had no clue that what he had done was punishable by death, and he could end up being banished from the village for this act that many would view as treasonous.

"Who told you that Naruto? It isn't true, what ever they told you wasn't true, it was just a trap a trap to-" Iruka started, only to be interrupted by a second voice, belonging to a white-haired Chunin who was perched on a tree branch, a fuma shurikan in one hand, another attached to his back.

"Good job, Naruto. I knew you could do it, especially with your natural skill in stealth, it's almost uncanny, the way you mange to always evade the ANBU, like a fox escaping the baying hounds. Then again, that's to be expected from the-" Mizuki was cut off by Iruka, who threw several small shurikan at Mizuki, only for the white-haired Chunin to deflect the metal weapons with his fuma shurikan.

"No, don't tell him Mizuki, it's an S-Rank secret, punishable by death." Iruka warned as he pulled out a kunai, preparing to fight to defend his student. At the same time, Naruto realized that his initial sense of Mizuki had turned out to be correct, as well as that he was already aware of the secret the two teachers, well teacher and ex-teacher, were bantering over.

"Hey Naruto, do you remember 12 years ago, when the Kyuubi attacked and killed lots of the people of our village. The Yondaime fought it, but he couldn't kill it, so instead he sealed it into a little newborn. That's right, you're the Kyuubi, and now I'm going to kill both of you and take that scroll and deliver it to my contact in the Land of Rice." Mizuki said, and watched Naruto for any signs of mental breakdown. Naruto smirked, deciding to switch to his more fitting battle mask.

"What, you thought I wasn't aware of the fireball inside of me. Please, I've known about him for years, you think I couldn't make the connection when half the population refers to me as the 'The Demon Brat', really, I may be dense, but I do notice things. If you really wanted to shock me, how about you tell how you have the energy to attack us after screwing your mother all last night, oh wait, you don't have a mother because she gave you up for adoption." Naruto taunted, and followed up the performance by turning around and smacking his rear, Mizuki's face growing redder by the second.

"Why you little." Mizuki spit out between his gritted teeth as he hurled the fuma shurikan at Naruto, who managed to roll to the side as the fuma shurikan almost took off his head. Rising to his feet, he saw Iruka and Mizuki locked in combat, the two Chunnin evenly matched as they exchanged blows which were either blocked or dodged.

"Run Naruto, I'm holding him off. Get that scroll back to the village, hurry; I don't know how long I can hold him off before he comes after you." Iruka called out, and as he turned to glance at Naruto, who caught sight of the blonde's grin which was usually accompanied by a prank.

"What scroll? I never had a scroll." Naruto said, tapping on the scroll beside him, which was enveloped in smoke as instead of the Forbidden Scroll, a Naruto clone stood in its place. Just then, Naruto's grin grew. "Do you perhaps mean the scroll that my clone just dropped off at the Hokage Tower? Or should I say, I just dropped off." Naruto said, only to vanish in a puff of smoke at the exact moment a squadron of ANBU descended upon the clearing, one holding a katana to Mizuki's neck as he dropped his weapon.

Meanwhile, back at the Hokage Tower, Sarutobi was patting Naruto on the back for a job well done. That was one thing about Naruto, you never really knew how he was going to do it, but you knew he would.

"Thanks for teaching me the **Shadow Clone Jutsu**, Jiji, and that other jutsu too." Naruto said, looking at his adopted grandfather with admiration and love.

"Always glad to help, now then, I suppose you want me to let yo back into the shinobi program?" The Hokage asked, sitting down behind his desk, donning his Hokage face as Naruto dropped the wide grin, although his eyes were still lit up.

"Well, here's what I was thinking…" Naruto said, leaning forwards, writing on a sheet of paper as he slid it towards the Hokage, who laughed heartily, puffing on his pipe.

"I think that can be arranged, Naruto-kun." Sarutobi said, chuckling at Naruto's idea.


	4. A Burning Desire to Win

Naruto yawned as he sat up in his bed, the memories of last week replaying themselves in his head. Kyuubi had taken to complaining about all the noise inside his head, until he learned that the 'noise' was Naruto, attempting to channel his chakra while keeping the negative influence out of it. The demonic fox didn't know whether to be impressed or annoyed that the young blonde was making it harder to escape the seal.

Naruto still had to work hard to draw on Kyuubi's chakra without the fox influencing his thoughts, but found out that as long as he meditated while doing it, it helped to suppress the fox's influence, possibly due to the calming effects of meditation. Through his training, Naruto found out that it was easier to summon the fire at will while meditating.

He had already had some fun meditating with his eyes open as the tiny flames danced around him. But back to the present, today was team assignments, and although Naruto was already aware of his two teammates, he still wanted to see how everyone was doing since graduating.

After getting dressed in his signature orange outfit, Naruto held out his hand, a medium-sized fireball appearing through will alone as Naruto closed his hand into a fist, the fireball dissipating into embers. Naruto gave a small smile as he locked his door behind him, although it wouldn't stop anyone determined to get inside, before taking to the roofs as he ran to the Academy.

Within minutes, he reached his destination, and, deciding for a flashy entrance, he leapt through the door, landing beside Hinata, who fainted due to the sudden appearance of Naruto. This caused Naruto to look at Hinata confused as she was unconscious, he blushed as he thought of how cute she looked when sleeping, feeling strangely stalkerish.

Hearing an incoming stampede, Naruto looked to the door as two girls tried to fit through it at the same time, both screaming for their 'Sasuke-kun' who seemed to be annoyed by their affections. These two girls happened to be Ino Yamanaka, and Sakura Haruno, the two biggest fan girls ever to exist.

They finally got through the door, both leaping for the last seat beside Sasuke, only for Kiba to sit down just before both girls crashed into him as the three tumbled to the bottom level in a heap. The whole class grew quiet as they took in the sight before them among the tangled limbs, and splayed bodies.

Sakura and Kiba were kissing, with an unconscious Ino laying across the pinkette's back, crushing her down into Kiba, who seemed utterly terrified by the situation, and had good reason as Sakura seemed to gain super strength, throwing Ino across the room as she slid down a wall, and clobbered Kiba who sprouted blood from a bulging bump on his head as he too went flying into a wall as Sakura stomped back up the stairs to straiten her dress, and sit calmly next to Sasuke, who looked at her with apathy.

At this moment, Iruka appeared in the doorway, taking note of the two bodies of his students laying unconscious against the wall, the fact that there seemed to be a ring of empty seats around Sakura, Iruka sighed as he set his papers down on his podium, looking at the graduating class with little expectation that they would end up being powerful shinobi or kunoichi, although he couldn't say that aloud due to school policies, so instead he just slammed his head against the podium several times, working up the will to get this day over with.

"Okay, let's get this over with. I'll read out the team assignments, as well as the team's Jounin sensei and number." Iruka said, not having to resort to his **Big Head Jutsu** to get the class's attention.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei, where's Mizuki-sensei?" One girl, Amie, asked innocently as Iruka had a light bulb go off in his head, remembering that Naruto was actually getting to graduate this time. Maybe he would have a chance to go somewhere in life, provided he got a team willing to look past his 'Dobe-ness' and treat him as an equal. "And why is _he_ in here, I thought this was only for people that passed the graduation exam?" Amie again, this time glaring at Naruto, who seemed entirely ignorant of the glares, even when they increased by a majority of the class when they noticed his presence.

"Mizuki was captured a week ago, attempting to steal the Forbidden Scroll. Due to that, he was investigated by Ino's father in the I&T department, and was found to have tampered with some of the tests, Naruto's in particular. Naruto was informed of this, and given a different test of Hokage-sama, which he passed. Although, due to Mizuki's tampering throughout Naruto's entire school years, we were forced to throw out all his grades as ineligible." Iruka said, using the story given to him by Hokage. It was this unfortunate event that caused Naruto to still be listed as the class Dobe, due to him lacking any grades other than his graduation exam.

"Mizuki also tampered with some other students grades, leading to them getting a higher grade than they should've earned, which has lead to some issues with the team placements, so just bear with me, and if you have any complaints, get over it, you're now shinobi, you don't have the option to complain." Iruka said, mentally jumping for joy. He had waited for this day just to tell off this class, due to its large quantity of fan girls.

"Now then, Team 1…" Iruka started, listing off names as people got upset about not being with their friends, or bad team chemistry, which was an actual thing to consider, after all, Naruto team had to be based of chemistry.

"Team 7, Sasuke Uchiha," Iruka said, all the remaining fan girls sitting up straighter as they waited for their name to be called. The ravenette in question simply 'hn'ed, and went back to brooding, and daydreaming about killing his brother in various manners. In some cases, he flat out beat Itachi, in other's he came from behind to beat Itachi, but the recurring theme was Itachi's death at Sasuke's hands.

"Naruto Uzumaki," Iruka called out, and was surprised when Naruto didn't loudly protest the pairing, although several girls deflated at the prospect of being on a team with Naruto, even when it was the same team as Sasuke. Hinata actually retreated within herself, fearing the worst for Naruto's team. She was well-aware that the classic team dynamic in this case would be 'Rookie of the Year', Sasuke; 'Top Kunoichi', Sakura; and 'Class Dobe', Naruto. She also knew that that team would hate Naruto. So she prepared to pat Naruto on the back when Iruka called out the last member.

"And finally, we have Top Kunoichi, Hinata Hyuuga. Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake." Iruka called out, and silence ruled the classroom for a second as Naruto pulled out a pair of earplugs, handing a second pair to Hinata as she pushed them into her ears, and realized what they were for.

"WHAT! NO, THERE MUST BE A MISTAKE! I'M SUPPOSED TO BE ON SASUKE-KUN'S TEAM, I'M TOP KUNOICHI AFTER ALL!" Sakura screeched, and Naruto smiled as her howler monkey impression didn't faze him due to the earplugs which had been a gift from his Jiji to help with his meditation, making it easier to shut out the world.

"As I said earlier, some students were given better grades than they earned. You had better book grades, but Hinata had better vocational skill grades, which I graded. Mizuki tended to give you a curve when grading your papers. Something about being paid off." Iruka said and before Sakura could scream at him, Sasuke hit her in the head, causing her to falter in her rant as she looked at Sasuke incredulously.

"Shut up. We're shinobi now, so act like one and deal with your problems without yelling. I would never have feelings for someone who complains about every little thing." Sasuke said, not taking his eyes off the bird outside the window as it circled overhead. Ino suddenly felt relieved that she had kept her mouth shut as mentally; she put herself higher on the list of Sasuke's potential girlfriend.

Meanwhile, inside Hinata's head, a chibi-Hinata was dancing around, a very effeminate Naruto down on one knee giving her a rose. But outside, Hinata just blushed at the prospect of spending all that time with Naruto on a team together, while she vowed to get stronger as not to drag Naruto down, not caring at all for Sasuke. Her father had warned her to stay away from the Uchiha, the Hyuuga-Uchiha rivalry surfacing between Sasuke and whichever of Hiashi's daughters became clan heir.

"Now then, Team 8 will be Shino Aburame, Kida Inuzuka, and…" Iruka trailed off as he looked at the next name with masked sympathy for Kiba and Shino to a lesser degree. "Sakura Haruno."

Poor Kiba, at that moment, chose to glance at Sakura, whose hair was flailing around like a wild animal as her eyes were replaced with fire, and Kiba felt as if the Shinigami was preparing to take his soul to the afterlife. Akamaru picked up on his master and partner's fear, but was unable to pinpoint the source of his fear. It seemed it was centered on the pin-haired girl who smelled nice, but that couldn't be right, she was nice to Akamaru, she always petted him and spritzed perfume on him, making him smell nice for all the female dogs at Akamaru's compound/kennel.

"Okay, well, in an effort to save Kiba's life, let's move on, Team 8's sensei will be Kurenai Yuuhi. Now then, Team 9 is still in rotation, so Team 10 will be Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, and Choji Akimichi, and your sensei will be Asuma Sarutobi." Iruka said, and three glanced at each other, not surprised. They had all been informed of their clans legendary teamwork, and that as the clan heirs of each one's clan, they were expected to cooperate well with each other.

"Now then, as I mentioned, due to Mizuki's tampering, the remaining five students will be grouped together as Team 11 with your sensei being Anko Matarashi." Iruka declared, smirking at the group of entirely fan girls' luck at catching the short straw of team sensei.

Now then, wait here and your sensei will come and pick you up. Now then, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and meet my new class, congratulations to each and everyone of you for getting this far, but be warned, from here on in, it gets serious and you will face many tests, and many of you will probably die in the process. Good luck." Iruka said; skipping out of the room with a wicked grin on his face as he practically sprinted down the hallway away from that accursed classroom.

(5 Hours Later)

Naruto sighed as he once again finished another book that he was saving for a lonely day. This book in particular was about how to create your own Taijutsu style, not that it really helped him all that much. If the book was to be believed, creating one's own unique Taijutsu style was more difficult and complex than develop an original jutsu which was a Jounin task. Basically, the book advised that if an original Taijutsu style was simply for fun, to instead closely observe and modify a different, well-established Taijutsu style into an original Taijutsu style.

Naruto tossed the book over his shoulder, the book landing on top of the pile of books Naruto had completed on topics ranging from Taijutsu, to Fuinjutsu, to the History of Uzushiogakure, the Uzumaki's homeland which Naruto hoped to visit one day. Looking out side at the sun, Naruto saw that it was heading for the horizon, but wouldn't make the vanishing act for a t least another five hours.

Instead, Naruto began practicing his chakra control, focusing on his chakra as he tried to walk up the wall of the classroom, only to slip and fall, hitting his head on a desk. Hinata ran over to check Naruto, whose eyes had been replaced with swirls as he mumbled about ramen. Hinata had to suppress her giggle behind her hand until Naruto sat up suddenly, and suddenly their foreheads were pressed together as they stared deeply into each other's eyes for 1…2…3… _thunk._ Both Genin hit the ground as the blushes overtook them and they fainted. Sasuke simply rolled his eyes at the pair, uncaring as he was, even he could see that the two cared deeply for each other from the way they stared at each other, the same way his mother, Mikoto, used to stare at his father, Fugaku.

Kakashi chose this exact moment to enter the room, only to be buried under the avalanche of books, courtesy of Naruto's boredom. A small dust cloud was kicked up as only an arm remained of the Elite Jounin, whose eyes were replaced with swirls.

It wasn't until ten minutes later that all the unconscious members of Team 7 awakened, looking around as they remembered the circumstances surrounding their fainting spells, Kakashi sweat dropping as he dug his way out of the pile of books, Naruto and Hinata glancing at each other as they joined their sensei and team mates.

"My first… impression... is that… I hate you." Kakashi said, breathing heavily as he struggled to claw his way out of the pile still, the three Genin blinking owlishly at him before he ordered them to meet him on the roof, and **Shushin**ned away.

It took them several seconds to jump into action, waking to the roof where they found Kakashi reading an orange book, which Naruto swore he had seen somewhere, and remembered the words of his nee-chan Ayame.

"If I ever find out you read that trash, I'll tell Hinata about it, and trust me when I say she'll be upset with you." Ayame had warned, and Naruto felt a cold chill hit him as he shook at the prospect of an upset Hinata, not to mention an angry Ayame.

"Well, since we're going to be stuck together, I might as well learn about your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams." Kakashi said boredly, yawning behind his face mask, much like their Nara classmate. "You first blondie." Kakashi ordered and sat down on the railing in a crouch as Naruto realized both his teammates' eyes were on him.

"Oh, well my name is Naruto Uzumaki; my likes are ramen, books, and my Jiji, and Nee-chan Ayame and her father Teuchi, and finally, my friend Hinata. My dislikes are arrogant people, people who judge people before getting to know them, the three minutes it takes to cook ramen, and a certain ravenette." Naruto said, sending a glare at Sasuke, which went largely unnoticed by the group.

"My hobbies are training, and meditation. My dream is to be a powerful shinobi and become the Hokage!" Naruto said, clenching his fist tightly as he looked at the Hokage Monument with determination.

"Okay, you next, Hyuuga." Kakashi said, looking at Hinata, who 'eep'ed, pushing her index fingers together.

"We-Well, my n-name is Hinata Hyuuga. My l-likes are c-cinnamon buns, training, a-and my friend N-N-Naruto-kun." Hinata said demurely, adding the honorific to Naruto's name under her breath as she looked at Naruto, who nodded, motioning for her to continue.

"My dislikes a-are the Hyuuga Elders, b-bullies, fish, and p-p-perverts. My hobbies are tr-training in the J-Jyuuken, cooking, and d-dancing. My dream is to become clan head of the Hyuugas, and to become a strong kunoichi." Hinata said, mentally proud of herself for getting through her dreams without stuttering. She also noticed that Naruto smiled, which brought a blush to her face.

"And finally, you emo." Kakashi said, gesturing to Sasuke, who glared at Kakashi for the name.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha, and I don't have many likes, just as I dislike many things. My hobbies are training, and evading fan girls. My dream, no, my ambition is to kill a certain man, and restore honor to the Uchiha clan." Sasuke said, and Kakashi nodded, already well aware of Sasuke's obsession with killing his brother.

"Well, my name is Kakashi Hatake, and I don't feel like sharing my likes or dislikes with you. My hobbies are none of your concern, and I really don't have a dream other than to serve the Leaf." Kakashi said, standing up as he looked at the sun overhead.

"Well, I think that's enough for today. Meet me tomorrow at Training Ground 7 for your Genin test. Don't eat, or you'll throw up!" Kakashi said, and before any of them could question the man with silver hair, he vanished in a swirl of leaves. Deciding to disperse, the three looked at each other, before turning and heading back to their respective homes.


	5. Three Strikes, You're Out!

Naruto yawned openly as he wandered through the village, heading to Training Ground 7 for his competency test, not that he knew that. All he knew was that he'd awoke this morning to his grumbling tummy, so he did the natural thing and ate breakfast. Then got dressed, and headed for Training Ground 7, sleep trying its hardest to reclaim him.

Yawning again, he stumbled into the opening designated Training Ground 7. Looking around, he didn't spot his two teammates, so he got down in a loose meditation form, breathing slowly as he felt the world slide away and the familiar heat of little flames appearing around him as he was struck with the thought that to the casual observer, he probably resembled a sacrifice to the Shinigami.

He was brought out of his meditation when he left an approaching chakra signal. _There's Hinata._ He thought before he realized what he was thinking. Opening his eyes, he was shocked to see Hinata standing there, glancing at Naruto out of the corner of her eyes.

_How did I do that? I couldn't have known it was her without looking, yet I somehow recognized her purely based on her chakra._ Naruto was cast into inner turmoil as Sasuke walked up behind Hinata, looking around as his signature scowl grew more annoyed.

"Great. First I'm stuck with the class Dobe, even if he may have some skills, and Miss Reclusive, then our sensei can't even show up on time. Next thing you know, we'll end up fighting an eyebrow less freak and a dyke." Sasuke complained as Hinata and Naruto just looked at him, blinking owlishly as the Uchiha continued ranting for the next ten minutes.

Two hours later, Kakashi appeared in a **Shushin**, waving kindly at his Genin team, only for three kunai to almost take out his head. Naruto was understandable, he had to be kept occupied or he'd come up with a way to prank the person holding him up. Sasuke too, was understandable, he was ready to fight and be taught powerful jutsu to beat his brother. However, what surprised Kakashi the most was that Hinata looked annoyed by his tardiness.

"Et tu Hinata?" Kakashi said from behind a tree, peaking around only for another kunai to fly at his head.

"Dignified shinobi respect punctuality. If we can show up on time, then so can you!" Hinata shouted, pointing at Kakashi, only to notice Naruto's wide-eyed look as a blush encompassed her face and she fainted.

"Wow, I didn't think she could say a whole sentence without stuttering, guess you really upset her Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said as he looked at Hinata, pulling out a small bottle of smelling salts as he held them under her nose. She sat up slowly, looking around as she realized she'd just fainted in front of her crush, however, before she could hide her embarrassed blush, Naruto grasped her wrist, forcing his own blush down as he helped her to her feet.

"Well, now that we've got all that sorted out, we can get to the purpose of this test." Kakashi said, pulling a pair of silver bells out from his pouch as they tinkled lightly in the breeze as the bumped into each other. "Your job is to take one of these two bells from me, anyone left without a bell when this alarm goes off will be sent back to the Academy. Come at me with the intent to kill." Kakashi said; looking at the three shocked Genin. However, Naruto broke them out as he added his own words of encouragement.

"Fine, then we better not lose, right?" Naruto added, his face breaking out in a confident smirk, mirrored by Sasuke, and a more light-hearted and kind one on Hinata's face as Kakashi eye smiled at the trio.

"Okay then, ready, GO!" Kakashi called out, and the three Genin-hopefuls vanished into the surrounding foliage. Kakashi nodded, approving of their stealth skills. "Well, at least you know how to hide." He taunted, pulling out his little orange book, and a nearby tree rustled.

"Found you." Kakashi said; throwing a shurikan into the tree as a flock of birds took flight. Kakashi looked confused at the tree limbs, he had been sure he'd felt a chakra signature coming from the tree. However, his one eye widened as he jumped back, several shurikan slicing through the air right where he was standing moments earlier.

Before he could try and find where the metal weapons had come from, Naruto appeared, his usual confident look plastered on his face as he set himself into a brawler Taijutsu style. Kakashi chuckled perversely as he turned the page on his book, annoying Naruto, who leapt at the Jounin.

He started with a straight punch, which Kakashi caught effortlessly, only for Naruto to use that hand to pick himself up, kicking at Kakashi's face, the Jounin leaning slightly to the side as Naruto's foot flew by. Kakashi let go of his fist, raising his free hand as he push Naruto's overextended leg, causing the blonde to tumble to the ground in a heap.

However, Naruto caught himself, pushing off from the ground as he back flipped away, closing his eyes as he tried to track Kakashi, like he did Hinata. He felt the Jounin suddenly appear behind him, gathering chakra into the seal he was holding.

"You really shouldn't let an enemy get behind you, Naruto." Kakashi said, intending to teach Naruto a lesson as he used his most brutal technique. "**Secret Konoha Taijutsu: 1000 Years of Pain!**" Kakashi called out, and shoved his fingers into Naruto's butt, intending to send him flying with chakra, only for Naruto vanish in a puff of smoke to be replaced by a log, covered in explosive seals which caught alight.

"Kuso!" Kakashi swore, leaping away from the blast which Naruto's two teammates saw from their hiding spots. Kakashi landed near Sasuke's, looking around for something before Sasuke saw him bend over to pick up his orange book. Sasuke took the chance to throw a few shurikan which imbedded themselves in Kakashi's side, pinning him to the tree. However, Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke, similar to Naruto as a log took his place, only this time with explosive seals on it, the shurikan sticking out.

"Crap, it was a trap. Now he knows my position, I better move." Sasuke hissed, only to turn and leap away and land in a clearing with Kakashi, who was still giggling perversely at his book.

"Ahh, so it's your turn, huh, Sasuke?" The silver-haired man said, glancing over the top of his book at the infuriated Uchiha. He was a proud Uchiha, he refused to be ignored like a piece of trash, he'd show Kakashi just what he could do, and that'd show him.

Sasuke charged the Jounin, who smirked, throwing up a hand to block Sasuke knee which he pivoted off of to punch at Kakashi, which was also blocked, only to finish the spin by swiping at the bells hanging at Kakashi's side. Kakashi's one eye widened as he shoved the Genin back, Sasuke digging his feet in as he slid back several feet.

"Hmm, you almost got a bell there. Very impressive for a lone Genin." Kakashi admitted as he went back to his book, unconcerned about Sasuke.

"Well, I'm not like most Genin." Sasuke smirked as he ran through a quick series of hand seals, inhaling as Kakashi smirked, running through his own set of hand seals. "**Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu.**" Sasuke exhaled, a massive fireball coming out of his mouth as it rushed at Kakashi, who simply stood there.

Once the flames had passed, Sasuke looked around for Kakashi's charred body, only he couldn't catch sight of him. _Where is he? Left, right, behind me._ The Uchiha turned to look, finding nothing. _Above?_ Once again he couldn't find his sensei. _That only leaves… below!_ Sasuke thought too late as a hand shot out of the ground, pulling him into the ground until only his head remained.

Confident that Sasuke would be occupied for a while with that, Kakashi went in search of his last Genin student.

Hinata breathed slowly, trying to calm her nerves as she saw both Naruto and Sasuke get systematically beat by Kakashi. She realized that of the three members of her team, she was probably the weakest; her father had told her as much. Still, if it meant helping her crush, she'd try her hardest to succeed in his eyes.

"Boo." Kakashi said, from behind her as she 'eep'ed, leaping from the tree as she turned to look for him. Suddenly, she saw the bushes rustling, and pulled a kunai from her pouch as she prepared to have her turn with Kakashi.

"Hinata…run." Naruto said as he crawled out of the bushes, kunai and shurikan littered across his back, blood flowing profusely from the many wounds. Hinata dropped her kunai, rushing to Naruto's side as she tried to help him, only for Naruto's breathes to start coming in ragged bursts.

"Hinata… why are… you… so weak? I mi- *cough* might…have survived had you… been stronger." And with that said, Naruto said, Hinata feeling tears threatening to pour from her eyes as she looked at the dead body of her crush, whose last words were cursing her weakness.

"What? N-No. I-I-I, please w-wake up, Na-Naruto-kun. I'm not-not weak!" Hinata spluttered as she clutched Naruto to her chest, his blood staining hr jacket, but she didn't care. Laying Naruto down calmly, she hit the tree next to her, using one of the most basic moves of her clan's Taijutsu style, the Jyuuken.

"**8 Trigrams: Forceful Palm!**" She yelled, striking the tree, which happened to be the tree Kakashi was hiding in, casting the Genjutsu, only for the tree to suddenly lean sideways, a black handprint scarred into the trunk. He decided to make his exit as an emotionally driven Hinata began systematically destroying the forest to find Kakashi for putting her through that torture.

Hinata chased the Jounin into a clearing, fighting him furiously with what she knew of the Jyuuken, Kakashi barely managing to outmaneuver her female rage fueled strikes, although he did take a couple hits, disabling his left arm.

Finally, Hinata let up on her Taijutsu, only to barrage Kakashi with kunai as he weaved around the flying metal. Suddenly, he felt the prick of a kunai at the back of his neck.

"What was that about letting your enemy get behind you, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto said; smirking, only for Kakashi to mirror his smirk, disappearing into a puff of smoke as a log replaced him. However, Naruto and Hinata didn't have to look long for their wayward sensei as he came back, somehow having regained the use of his left arm as he kept reading his perverted book, although one could tell he was secretly pleased with this group of Genin. It was almost a shame they were about to be sent back to the Academy.

Kakashi started with Hinata, only for Naruto to interfere whenever it looked like Hinata was about to lose, the occasional kunai or shurikan reminding the Jounin that he was fighting two people, not one now. Finally, Hinata overextended with a palm strike, and Kakashi ducked underneath it, sweeping her legs out from under her as he charged Naruto, only for the blonde to put up a more valiant fight now that he was confident that Kakashi could handle his fire powers.

Naruto rolled forwards, aiming to grab the bells, under for Kakashi to grab him, falling for Naruto's trap as a tiny flame appeared from no where, nearly taking off Kakashi's head as he leapt back, a seemingly endless army of fist-size fireballs speeding at him as he was forced to using a Water style jutsu to protect himself as steam began flooding over the field. Hinata opted to stay put, knowing that her Byakugan would be useless in this steamy field, although would keep a careful watch in case Kakashi tried to escape.

Naruto smirked, creating four more Shadow Clones as they plunged into the steam, using their newly discovered, and developing sensory skills to find Kakashi's position, attacking the Jounin while they held some semblance of an advantage.

Kakashi, meanwhile, was trying to find his way out of the steam while fending off the attacks from multiple directions. _Great, he knows the Shadow Clone Jutsu, too. What was that fire technique, I've never heard of it before._ Kakashi thought as he hit yet another clone in the back of the neck, dispelling them.

Suddenly, the steam was blown away as a massive fireball landed into the clearing, the heat causing the steam to evaporate, leaving Naruto vulnerable as he was trying to sneak up on Kakashi, only for the Jounin to catch him, and throwing him away as Naruto smirked.

However, before Kakashi could follow up, Sasuke reengaged the Jounin, although his movements were clearly slower than before, evidence that a Genin shouldn't use not just one, but two C-Ranked Fire Jutsu in the same fight.

The silver-haired man easily dispatched Sasuke, sweeping his feet out from under him, catching his leg and throwing him across the clearing where he bounced across the ground, crashing into Hinata as the pair was sent into a tree before crumpling to the ground in a heap of limbs.

Kakashi laughed jovially as he advanced on the pair, one sporting several cuts and probably a concussion as well as a bruised ego, the other groaning audibly from taking the brunt of the impact with the tree. Kakashi advanced on the duo, idlely flipping a kunai in his hands as he looked at the downed Genin, and just when he was having such high hopes for them.

He decided to scare them a bit, throwing the kunai at them, he aimed for the tree behind them, but the returning feeling to his arm caused his aim to slip slightly as it hit Sasuke in the chest.

Or at least it would've had Naruto not appeared in front of the kunai, the cold metal digging into his shoulder as blood spurted from the wound. He cringed, clenching his teeth as he grabbed the handle, pulling the kunai out, throwing it harmlessly to the side.

"I swear on this wound. So long as I breathe, my teammates shall not die!" Naruto swore, grabbing at the torn cloth of his jacket, blood seeping out between his fingers as he felt the tissue begin restitching itself together.

He was surprised when Hinata climbed to her feet, standing in front of him, with her arms spread out. "I f-feel the same, Nar-Naruto-k-kun." Hinata got out as her body ached, you could tell by the way she favored her right side, and before she could fall down, Naruto caught her, holding her up.

"Hn, as if I'd let the Dobe out do me. I'm not going anywhere until I beat you, Dobe!" Sasuke said, joining his team as they supported each other, their confidence and enthusiasm seeping into the clearing.

"Well, nice as that is, you still have to get the two bells from-" Kakashi was interrupted by a soft tinkling as Naruto handed the two bells to Hinata and Sasuke, both of whom seemed shocked to have actually passed the test, even if it was rather roundabout.

"But-but Naruto-kun. I-I don't want y-you to be sent b-back to the A-Academy." Hinata insisted, shoving the bell back into his hands, Naruto tilted his head to the side.

"You mean you don't know?" Naruto asked confusedly, Hinata blushing as Naruto stared into her eyes.

"K-K-Know wh-wh-what?" She stuttered, a kind smile growing on Naruto's face.

"They can't send me back to the Academy. Iruka's got a new class already, and none of the other teachers would take me. So Jiji just went ahead and cleared me for duty. I'm a registered Genin of Konohagakure. See?" Naruto said, pulling out his ninja license.

"Wait, you mean you didn't have to do this test. You would've been a Genin either way, so why would you help us?" Sasuke asked, now he was confused, stupid blondes.

"I thought we made this clear, I'm not going to take the easy road while my teammates, my comrades, my friends, suffer." Naruto said, and Kakashi felt a grin crawl up his face to his eye as he chuckled.

"Well, I guess that's that. You pass." He said, eye smiling as the trio now known as Team 7 cheered, before falling to the ground in a dog pile as their tired bodies gave out.

_You're so much like him. And her, it's almost unbelievable. Just how far will you go, Naruto Uzumaki, when you find a place to call home in someone's heart._ A certain pervert thought as he cut off the flow of chakra to his crystal ball, turning back to the bane of his kind, paperwork.

**A/N: Hey guys, it's Aero's sister. He's currently gone on vacation, but left this chapter for me to upload today. Unfortunately, this is the only chapter he got done before he left, so you'll have to wait a few weeks for the next installment.**


	6. A Spark in the Dark

"Jiji, I demand that you give us a more interesting mission, something engaging, something challenging!" Naruto said, hitting the Hokage's desk as he puffed away on his pipe until Naruto snatched it from his mouth, throwing it out the open window. The Third Hokage leapt from his seat to the window, making a grab from the falling pipe. When he missed, a solitary tear rolled down his cheek, dripping to the ground below.

"Puffy-chan." Sarutobi said sadly as he tried to hide the tears as he retook his seat. Glaring at Naruto, the blonde's two teammates were gazing at him in awe and shock that he could get away with disrespecting the Hokage of the village so easily. Kakashi probably would've ordered Naruto to apologize, had he not had his head buried in the Icha Icha book in front of his face, he wasn't even aware that Naruto had practically assaulted the Hokage.

"Fine, you want a more interesting mission, I order you to recapture Tora!" The Hokage said smugly, pointing a finger at Naruto who deadpanned back. Hinata and Sasuke hung their heads down at having to recapture the elusive ninja cat Tora who had apparently escaped once again. Mentally, Sasuke was cursing Naruto for his disrespect.

Meanwhile, Hinata was imagining herself and Naruto alone in the forest, Naruto covered in cuts while Hinata smeared her special healing cream on his body to help it heal. Slowly, Naruto removed his shirt to allow her access and then-. Hinata's face went boiling red and she fainted, luckily Naruto noticed just in time to keep her from hitting the desk as he laid her on the couch to the side of the office.

"Umm, how about no." Naruto retorted as he glared Sarutobi down. Mentally, Sasuke was cursing the blonde even louder, while cursing himself to a much lesser degree for allowing the blonde to keep digging the hole deeper.

"You would dare say no to your Hokage?" The Third demanded as he raised himself to his full height before something crashed through his open window, landing squarely on his desk as it turned the organized surface into a warlike battlefield. Naruto reached forwards, grabbing the object, pulling something free from it as he handed the Third's pipe back to him, then handing over Tora.

"I swapped that smelly stuff in your pipe for some catnip. Once you lit it up, I knew it was only a matter of time before Tora smelled it and came running. Mission pay please." Naruto said, holding his hand out as Sarutobi looked incredulously at the blonde. Behind Naruto, Sasuke was in a similar state, and Kakashi just gave a perverted giggle as he was still ignoring the situation.

"Now then, I believe I was trying to convince you that we're ready for a C-rank mission." Naruto said, his carefree face losing the jovialness as he expressed through his body and eyes that he had the utmost confidence that his team could do this. Behind him, Sasuke nodded mutely, still in shock over Naruto's confidence and trickery. Mentally, Sasuke was still cursing the blonde for outsmarting even the Hokage.

"Fine, Kakashi, do you believe your team is ready for a C-rank mission?" The Hokage asked; steepling his fingers in front of his face to hide his grim expression, and masked smile at Naruto's grit. If the boy ever made Hokage, he'd need that to stand up to the Civilian Council, Kami knows Sarutobi never did.

"Yes, yes, just perfect." Kakashi mumbled out, giggling away as Sarutobi sighed, and Naruto frowned while Sasuke grinned at the prospect of going on a C-rank mission. Bandit attacks were not unusual on C-ranks, and Sasuke wanted to not only prove himself superior to the blonde, but also to test himself to see how far he'd came since that night.

"*sigh* Fine, send in the client, Misumi." The Hokage said loudly as the secretary 'hai'd and the door to the office opened to reveal and older man who had a small backpack on his back, and a hat to cover his head in the sun. Naruto took one whiff of the man and cringed, covering his nose as the man smelt like a walking bar. This image was helped by the bottle of in the man's hand that undoubtedly held sake.

"Huh? This is all my money is worth? A giggling Cyclops, an emo, a light-hearted girl, and a flaky blonde. I think I'd do better with that team of dogs I saw walking around the streets." The man complained, until Naruto glared at him and mumbled something under his breath, and snapped his fingers as the man yelped and dropped the bottle of sake.

Only Naruto knowing what was about to happen allowed him to catch the bottle as he held it back up to the man. "Something the matter, drunkard?" Naruto asked innocently while thinking of an idea for an attack. The drunk hesitantly took the bottle back, thanking the blonde for saving his sake.

"Team 7, this is Tazuna, a bridge builder from Nami no Kuni. He's requested a team to guard him while he finishes a bridge." The Hokage said; handing the scroll to Naruto as Kakashi looked preoccupied. Honestly, Naruto considered setting fire to the book to garner his attention, but he doubted that would help the situation. So instead, Naruto just 'accidentally' dropped some of the still smoking cat nip on the book as Tora leapt from the desk on to Kakashi who yelped as the cat began viciously mauling his book.

"Now then, _Sensei_, if you're done reading your smut, can we get on with the mission?" Naruto asked and Kakashi sighed, giving up on saving his book as all that remained were shreds of paper that better resembled confetti than the book it used to be. Grimly nodding his hand, Naruto turned back to the Hokage.

"Bye, Jiji, see you in a few weeks. I promise we'll do our best." Naruto assured the Hokage, and beside him, Sasuke nodded as well as did Hinata as she awoke from her dream-state.

"Okay team, meet at the gate in one hour." Kakashi said, vanishing in a **Shushin**. Turning to his two team mates, Naruto stuck his hand out, the other two copying him as they tossed their hands into the air before turning to leave and get ready for their mission.

As they left, no one noticed that Sarutobi pulled out a scroll, sealed with the symbol of an Anbu Communiqué. _Dear Hokage, target has been sighted on the bordering shoreline with Mizu. After a short engagement, the target escaped and is currently headed towards Nami. We are in pursuit, but chances are low that we'll catch the target. Advise Hokage to stop any Genin or Chunin teams from entering the area._ Sarutobi sighed as he read the message.

It had been sent a month previously from a small team of Anbu patrolling the borders of Hi no Kuni. He sent up a silent prayer to the former Hokages to watch over the team that just left his office. The 'target' mentioned in the message was an A-rank Nuke-nin for a reason, but hopefully, she had already moved on. Since he hadn't received a second message though, so chances were that she had eliminated the Anbu team in pursuit, and he had no way of knowing her whereabouts.

"Oh Minato, what would you do in my position. I can't baby Naruto forever, but that doesn't mean I want to send him to something he's not ready for yet. You were always the rational one, Kushina would've probably beat us both and then followed Naruto." The Third said as he steepled his fingers before moving on to the next message as he had to hurry to finish all the dreaded paperwork.

(24 Hours Later)

"Why, why, why did I do that!?" Naruto cried as he punched the tree in front of him. It would've hurt except his hand would heal up quickly, and the tree seemed to be losing whatever battle the two were having.

"Naruto-kun…" Naruto heard his crush mumble as she looked through the small grove of trees for him. Sighing, he reigned in his anger as he unclenched his fists, but one could still see that he was conflicted by the way his eyes darted around, trying to avoid Hinata's gaze.

"I'm over here… Hinata-chan." Naruto said, and due to his shifting eyes, he didn't see how Hinata blushed at the friendly address. But she forced her blush down as she placed a hand on Naruto shoulder, drawing his gaze to her as she saw the singular tear that trailed down his face. It seemed like such a foreign image, Naruto her hero and crush upset and depressed. Before she thought, she placed her other hand on his other shoulder as she pulled him closer, wrapping her hands around him as she hugged him, Naruto blushing intensely at the physical contact as he slowly brought his hands up as well, embracing the equally blushing bluenette.

"What's th-the matter?" Hinata mumbled lowly, but due to her close proximity, Naruto still heard as her breath tickled his ear and he gave an involuntary shiver before they separated, looking into each other's eyes. Unnoticed to either one, their faces slowly got closer before a bird cried out; startling both into separating with blushes bright enough to light up the pitch blackness of night.

"It's my fault. If I hadn't said what I did, Sasuke…" Naruto trailed off before starting again, trying to get a better grasp of his emotions. "I made a promise that I wouldn't let my teammates get hurt on my watch, and rather than protect you, I'm the one responsible for hurting Sasuke. I hate this feeling, of knowing that I hurt someone precious to me, I never want to feel this again, never want to see my precious people hurt because of me." Naruto said; the image of Sasuke's prone body, his arm bent at a strange angle, one that it certainly shouldn't be able to bend at.

"Naruto-kun…" Hinata trailed off, adding the honorific under her breath as Naruto didn't hear due to his inner turmoil. "Tell me, go through it with me again, and show me what you did wrong." Hinata insisted, a rare side of her showing as she became determined to make Naruto believe that he was innocent, that what happened to Sasuke wasn't his fault.

"Hinata, I-I can't." Naruto said, only for Hinata to grab him, forcing him to look her dead in the eye. What he saw surprised him, rather than look at him accusingly, she looked at him in the way that one would view a child accused of breaking something. She was fully convinced of his innocence, and even if he did do it, she forgave him.

"No, you will do it, because if you are to blame, then this is your punishment, and if you didn't then you have nothing to fear. I don't blame you, Kakashi-sensei doesn't blame you, Sasuke probably blames you, but he can go screw himself and his over inflated ego!" Hinata said, and then blushed heavily as she realized what she'd said about her injured teammate.

Naruto really was breaking down her walls.

"Okay, as you know, it started when we walked passed that puddle…"

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm glad to be back behind the keyboard. I'm sorry if this chapter isn't as good as the others, I really had a hard time writing this arc, and deciding how I wanted it to go down. I've rewrote this chapter three times already, before this came out. So I finally just decided on this course of action: I'm just going to skip the Wave Arc altogether and jump straight into the Chunnin Exams Arc, hope you guys don't mind. I'll still review it in flashbacks when the need arises, but I'm just having a block trying to write it, and I know how to write the Chunnin Arc, so umm, yeah. And I'm really glad you guys kept with it this long so I'm going to come out and say this now, I try not to bash but if I do in fact bash someone you like, forgive me. Now what I wanted to say is… you guys really wanted me to burn Kakashi's porn book. What next, you want me to burn off Lee and Gai's eyebrows? Have a good day.**


	7. A Test of Character

**A/N: Sup guys, I'm back finally, with another chapter of The Scorched Earth. Now, I said last time that I was going to skip the Wave Arc and cover it in flashbacks where relevant, and you guys seemed to be okay with that, so this chapter will start the Chunnin Exams, an arc I was looking forward to, so bear with me while I write for you.**

**P.S. I just realized that this is my first A/N at the start of a chapter in this story.**

Death. It was equally the most liberating and restricting sensation a soul can experience. The feeling as the last breath leaves your body, your soul trying so desperately to inhale and take another breath, to last another second, but it isn't be as Death comes to all without question or opposition. One can try as hard as they wish to escape Death or to beat it, but the truth of the matter is that each victory is empty because Death only comes when you can't fight any longer. This was the fate of each and every person that Death claims, the end of the incredible journey called life. The point, you ask, the point was that Death had come and claimed them, Zabuza and _her_.

Naruto sat up; breathing heavily, sweat pouring from his body as the voice echoed in his head, fading slowly into blackness. The voice had come for the past week, ever since the fight between Zabuza and Haku. Team & had arrived back in Konoha late yesterday afternoon, and had reported to the Hokage, who scolded them for continuing on a mission outside of their capabilities. This was followed by congratulations for completing a mission outside their capabilities.

But that didn't ease Naruto's conscious any, not even the kind words by Hinata had stopped the dull ache in his heart for his dead friend.

You could call him stupid for caring, you could call him weak for showing compassion for the enemy, and you could call him useless for failing to save his friend, because every accusation was true, whether he was stupid, weak, or useless for it was beside the point. Because in Naruto's heart and soul, he knew that being caring and compassionate and weak were bad for the shinobi lifestyle, but as a human being, something the civilians tried hard to make him out to be anything but, he welcomed them with open arms.

Turning to look at his alarm clock, he saw that it was almost 5 in the morning, and groaned as he rolled out of bed, deciding to go for a walk as the sun rose. Stretching his body, his tense muscles relaxed, and his joints popped as they were worked. Giving his neck one final roll, he pulled on his clothes which a Shadow Clone had washed during the night, and left his tiny apartment.

It was somewhat cool outside, so Naruto zipped up his orange jacket, using it as stealth training as he crept through the village, trying to avoid being seen as he reached the outer wall, sitting down on it as he watched the sunrise in the distance, the ball the same shade of orange as his jacket, turning the whole village ginger as it rose into the sky.

Sighing as the light swept over him, Naruto decided to try something out as he closed his eyes, relaxing his body while applying chakra to keep himself stuck to the wall as he mentally opened his eyes, several chakra signatures visible beneath him at the gate, probably the two gate guards and a returning, or leaving, shinobi. He could've pushed out the range of his sensory sight, but the more he pushed it, the blurry it got, and the more of a headache he would end up with.

He opened his eyes again, reaching into his pocket as he pulled out a book. It had been an on-the-spot purchase from a book store after Jiji had mentioned something about a Chunnin Exam coming soon. Naruto didn't expect that they would take part due to Sasuke's health, but you never knew with the Uchiha. So Naruto had bought a book on Kumo.

If he did take part in the Exam, Kumo would probably be the biggest competitor against Konoha, and Naruto had a bit of a grudge to deal with. Kumo had taken part in the attack on his clan, as had Kiri, and Iwa, but Iwa was notorious for not taking part in Konoha's Exams after the last Shinobi war when the Fourth Hokage destroyed their army single-handedly. Kiri didn't have much of an army now, due to the Civil War, so they probably couldn't afford to send very strong shinobi to take part. Suna, they might be able to be strong competition, and rumors were that the Daimyo had cut funding to their village, so this was the perfect chance to prove their worth, but Naruto didn't have an axe to grind with them like he did Kumo or Iwa.

The book itself didn't really have much info on Kumo, probably due to their renowned security. The only villages with tighter security were Taki and Ame, but both were minor villages.

One chapter was in the book that interested Naruto greatly. The Storm Release. After his inability to fight effectively in Wave due to the mist, Naruto had become wary of Water based Kenkai Genkai, and strong Suiton users. Haku's ice release was okay because Naruto could somewhat counter it with his fire, but against someone who could use electrified water in the form of laser. Umm, no.

Naruto was lost in his thoughts when a familiar chakra entered his sensors, his head whipping around to find the owner below himself, his book snapping shut as he pushed it back into his pocket. His sensors all changed from the broad range he usually employed to a more refined field, which was able to stretch from the wall to the Hokage Tower, at the cost that he could only sense a singular chakra signal, but it helped when locating a foreign shinobi in the village. The only real place he could use it was inside the village, because the technique required him to block out all the familiar chakra he sensed around him.

He closed his eyes, letting go as he fell backwards, his body free-falling towards the ground below, his hair whipping around him as the wind cut coldly into his skin as he fell, until he stuck his hand out, the limb lit up with chakra as he attached it to the wall, his fingers dragging furrows into the stone as he slowed his descent until he dropped down silently.

Looking around, he took to the roofs, leaping from one to another as he headed for the familiar chakra, his senses alerting him to the proximity as he went back to his broader spectrum once he had pinned down the location.

Coming to a stop on a nearby rooftop, he bent down, catching his breath as he watched the meeting happening below him.

"Move, pinky! That brat needs to watch where he's going!" A male crowed as he made a move to go around Sakura. He was wearing a full body black jumpsuit with two pointed ears like cat ears. He had several purple lines on his face which Naruto took as war paint. A large bundle was beside him, but Naruto could detect several chakra strings between him and the bundle.

_"__Huh, maybe I should've read that chapter on Suna after all." _Naruto thought as considered pulling the book out to check, but his curiosity at Sakura's skill overriding the idea.

Previously, he wouldn't have been concerned, considering Sakura's skills, or lack of therefore, but she seemed to have jumped in skill since Graduation, her reserves not anything remarkable, but they were easily as large as one of the clan heirs like Kiba or Shino. It made Naruto excited for the Chunnin exams to see how his classmates had taken to being 'real' shinobi and kunoichi.

Back to the confrontation on the dirt street, Sakura moved to block the male, who scowled as he tensed up and started to brush past her, only for Sakura to grab his arm and push him back slightly, the boy caught off guard only for a second which was all it took for Sakura to make several hand seals and cast a Genjutsu over the boy.

_"__It seems that she's taking after her sensei."_ Naruto noted as the girl accompanying him walked up and punched him over the head, dispelling the Genjutsu.

She had sandy blonde hair pulled into four ponytails. She wore a pale blouse which was loose and hung long enough to pass for a dress. Her headband was around her waist and she had a large metal weapon on her back which made Naruto wonder how strong she was to tote it around all the time.

But neither one of them had the chakra signature that Naruto had sensed, and a quick pulse through his range revealed that a third shinobi, the one he was looking for, was hidden in the trees above.

"Baka, don't just antagonize a kunoichi when we're not here to fight!" The blonde said as the male rubbed his head, looking something akin to embarrassed as the girl admonished him.

"Yes, Temari, I won't do it again." The boy said; although it sounded sarcastic, the girl didn't seem to notice.

"Kankuro, Temari, shut up before I kill you." A third voice said as a young redhead jumped down from the trees, landing silently beside his fellow Suna-nin as his gaze swept over the street with an apathetic glare, his arms crossed.

"What are three Suna-nin doing in Konoha? Even if we are allied, you can't just waltz in here whenever you please!" Sakura demanded, and Naruto sighed. It seemed old habits died hard.

"They are here for the Chunnin Exams, Sakura-san. Think, would the gatekeepers allow two Genin without a sensei, and a wild raccoon, into the village?" Naruto stated as he dropped down, the two Suna ninja and Sakura turning on him in surprise. Well, Sakura was surprised; Kankuro and Temari were just shocked that this boy knew about Gaara's burden.

"Well, what if they kill them, or they snuck into the village unnoticed? Honestly, Naruto-baka, you tell me to think, but you don't consider all the facts." Sakura said, looking at Naruto with a superior attitude. Okay, so maybe she hadn't changed much in personality, but at least she wasn't useless in a fight.

"Sure, two shinobi that _I_ sensed from the wall, snuck past two trained Chunnin, and the Hokage is just letting them wander aimlessly around the village. And if I'm not mistaken, not even three nameless shinobi, but the Kazekage's children. Yep, totally snuck in." Naruto said, and Sakura at least had the decency to blush, although she didn't admit that she was wrong. But Naruto didn't push it.

The two older siblings were practically shell-shocked at this point. Not only had they been caught off-guard by a Genin who had located in the massive village, but he also knew of Gaara's burden, and their true identities. But Gaara, well the redhead seemed almost gleeful as desired to fight Naruto now. He would make a wonderful offering to Mother.

"That said, I have to go, Kakashi-sensei should out of the Jounin meeting on the Chunnin Exams, and with my luck, Team 7 is probably signed up, despite Sasuke's hospitalization." Naruto complained, which made Sakura shut up as she raced off towards the hospital. "Well, that was quick. Anyways, see you guys later." Naruto said apathetically as he walked off, Konohamaru trailing behind him.

Little did Naruto know that he would look back on this meeting as the first time he couldn't sense Kyuubi's hatred directed at him. And when he realized that, he smiled a soft smile.

**A/N: Hey guys, I finished another chapter after much deliberation on how I want this arc to go. As many of you have noticed by now, I tended to stick to the canon plotline, but his time, I'm going to try and mix things up quite a bit for you. One such thing I hinted at earlier in the story, if you know my style of writing by now. That said, I'm really looking forward to this, and so it is with regret that I inform you guys that I'm going to uploading every other week now due to my Senior year at school being troublesome. But, hopefully, I can still provide you guys with the entertainment you deserve.**

**Now then, in a review, post which you think is cooler: The Magnet release or the Storm Release.**

**Also, I've been rewatching the war again, and I just saw where Naruto had his bad-A moment releasing Kurama from his cage. I'm sad to say that I was clapping and squealing like a fan girl, *downcast sniffle*.**


	8. The Key to the Heart

Naruto sighed as he drew idlely on the back of his test. All around him, he could feel the tension in the air as everyone tried to work out the complex questions on the paper, but Naruto didn't care really. He was lost in his thoughts of something that had occurred to him from observing his teammate's fight with Rock Lee.

It was with no small sense of satisfaction that Naruto was right when he'd guessed that Team 7 was entered into the Chunnin Exams, the test in front of him being the first part. They had woken up early to meet at Training Ground 7 to make an agreement to do their best in the Exams. Hinata was just glad she hadn't stuttered or fainted when Naruto had grabbed her hand.

They had arrived at The Academy with plenty of time to spare, only to find a large contingent of hopeful Chunnin in front of a door on the second floor. Two Genin were blocking the door, warning everybody off, but Naruto could sense that they were using a Henge to conceal their appearance. They were on the high-end of Chunnin judging from their chakra reserves.

"Hey, could you move, people do have places to go!" Naruto complained as the group turned to face Team 7, anger on their faces as several pointed accusing fingers at the two Henge'd Chunnin.

"They won't let us in for the Chunnin Exam, if we aren't inside soon, we'll be disqualified from competing!" One Genin cried; others echoing his cry as they tried once again to push their way passed the one's blocking the door, only to get shoved back.

"Not out problem, now move aside or we'll move you ourselves." Sasuke growled out, sending an especially nasty sneer towards those that looked ready to pummel his face in. He didn't have time to waste disposing of these weaklings, and besides, he wanted to conserve his energy for the actual tests.

"Yeah, you're such idiots if you think a simple Genjutsu like that will fool us!" A calm voice said from behind Sasuke, only glanced behind him, only to see Sakura standing there, tapping her foot impatiently. Although she didn't appear much different outwards, Sasuke could pick up on the subtle differences such as how she didn't flinch, or blush intensely at his gaze; instead, she met his eyes evenly, although she did give a small smile. If he was impressed, he didn't show it.

"Baka, don't say that, now we'll have more competition to get past until I can beat Teme's face in." Naruto groaned as the Genin surrounding the door, looked up and 'ahh'ed before heading up to the next floor.

"Shut up Naruto, I doubt you even knew it was a Genjutsu." Kiba said; Akamaru yipping in agreement, even though he thought his master was an idiot for challenging the boy that smelled like a fox.

"Yes, that's why I was trying to get passed them to the _next floor_." Naruto growled out, and before anyone knew it, Kiba and Naruto had their heads pressed against each other, lightning shooting between them.

"Bah, you probably couldn't even read the sign right, that's why you thought you were on the wrong floor!" Kiba retorted, smiling wolfishly.

"Ha, that's rich, if I recall correctly, it wasn't me that misspelled my own name on the Graduation test. Now how about you scamper off, and go hump something, mutt." Naruto threatened, Hinata growing slowly more and more worried that a fight was about to break out in the hallway.

But suddenly, two fists planted themselves in Naruto's and Kiba's heads, the owner of said fist taking care not to hit Akamaru, who blinked owlishly at his downed master as he began barking rapidly to wake Kiba up, who groaned and said something about 'stupid 'Kura'.

Hinata ran over to her crush, checking on him as Naruto sat up, the pair repeating their twin fainting spells as a giggled echoed down the hallway as Naruto stirred at a chakra signature that felt almost… poisoned. He saw Hinata passed out, and patted her shoulder, the bluenette stirring as she sat up and saw something that made her look fearfully down the hall as she hid behind Naruto.

"Ahh, Sakura-chan, such monstrous strength. Be my girlfriend." A voice said as a boy got down on one knee, handing a rose to Sakura, who blushed at the gesture, the pinkette glancing at Sasuke out of the corner of her eye as he looked bored. She sighed, turning back to answer the boy, only to freeze up at his giant eyebrows.

"Eeekkk, you have two caterpillars on your face!" Sakura cried out, grabbing her stoic teammate as she shoved the Aburame in front of her. She hated bugs, and she thought dogs smelled horrible, although Akamaru didn't smell retched horrible, maybe because he was always letting her bathe him with shampoo.

"Lee, stop scaring the poor girl, I told you those eyebrows freak normal people out." A girl said as she appeared beside the boy, her hair pulled into two buns that made her resemble a panda.

"Yes, Tenten, I understand what I must do." Lee said as he pulled out a kunai, he led it up for a moment before pointing it at Sasuke. "Uchiha Sasuke, I challenge you to a fight for Sakura-chan's heart." Lee called, and Sasuke smirked for a second, something inside of him calling to fight Lee.

"Lee, we don't have time for this. You can have your little fight later, right now; we have to get to the third floor." A bored voice said, and Naruto felt Hinata stiffen behind him as a second male appeared, Le and Tenten's final teammate, no doubt. "However, I'm curious about this year's Rookie of the Year, so have your little spar, but make it snappy." Sasuke smirked.

So they had sparred for about five minutes until the fight was broken up by Lee, Tenten, and Neji's sensei, Maito Guy, who looked identical to Lee. _"I've heard of hero worship, but to take it that far."_ Naruto thought as he shook himself out of his daydreams.

_"__He did rather well considering his 'condition'." _Naruto thought, his mind drifting back to the event that almost killed his teammate, and how he blamed himself.

*Flashback*

"Are you okay, scaredy cat?" Naruto asked sarcastically as he barreled into the side of one of Zabuza's Water Clones. It scattered into droplets of water, although no one could see it in the dense fog. Seemingly sensing the will, the fog began to lift.

Sasuke felt a deep rage inside of him alight as he charged past Naruto, leaping in front of him brandishing a kunai. He grabbed Naruto's collar with his free hand as he tried to lift the blonde off the ground, he probably would've succeeded had Naruto been a normal malnourished child, but Naruto had a few people who cared for him, and so he was well-nourished, he had to be if he wanted to be a shinobi.

"That's it Dobe, I'm sick and tired off your attitude. You are a nobody compared to me, an Uchiha, you understand." Spittle flew from Sasuke's mouth and splattered against Naruto's cheek, whose hand rose and slowly wiped it off before punching Sasuke in the face. Sasuke stumbled backwards, dropping his kunai as he fell on his butt.

"Ha, look the almighty Uchiha knocked down by a simple punch. I'm sure your clan would be so proud." Naruto retorted apathetically, before his eyes widened and he leapt to the side. "Move it Uchiha!" Naruto barked out as the Uchiha sneered at him.

"Like I'm going to listen to you, Orphan Dobe!" Sasuke answered only for a second Water Clone to come out of the bushes and make a beeline for Sasuke, whose eyes also widened as he stood to dodge, only to slip on his dropped kunai and fell forwards.

The Clone hefted his massive blade with ease as he brought it down on Sasuke, who cried out, only to become doused in water as Naruto appeared, breathing heavily with a kunai outstretched, his ambush barely making it in time.

As if in agreement of this fact, a paper thin cut appeared on Sasuke's neck from where the blade had touched him. His eyes were still the size of dinner plates as he fell unconscious, the shock to much for the Genin Uchiha.

*Flashback End*

When he had awakened a day later from a feverish nightmare, his eyes were the signature red of the Sharingan. According to Sasuke, the fear of his death had allowed him to awaken the Dojutsu. Kakashi had had Sasuke see the Psych Ward when they had arrived; just to make sure he was battle fit.

Apparently he had gotten a clean bill of health, considering where they were. All the same, it had hit Naruto just as hard, how he almost caused his teammate to be killed because his stupid honorable nindo. Curse it in its entirety.

Hinata had told him about Neji, the last member of Team 9, who was also her cousin, although she referred to him as Neji-nii-san, even though she always seemed to be afraid whenever he came around. It had seemed like she'd wanted to say more, but it wasn't her place, she'd said.

That brought them to this moment, with Naruto bored out of his skull. And so he decided to meditate, and try to familiarize himself with some of the competition.

He was supposed to be answering questions on a test by cheating, but he didn't really have any way to cheat without getting caught, so instead he was covertly lighting people's tests on fire, which had been pretty funny when everyone started acting like the room was haunted. Hinata had apparently thought so at least.

He felt the noise drop away as he fell into the blackness of his mind, until he felt himself impacted something wet and slimy. Rubbing his head, he stood up to find himself in his mindscape, which was still a sewer, which irked Naruto to no end. He didn't like the sewers, and from what he could tell, it was supposed to represent his mental stability, which was utter BS, because he was well-educated and structured, so WHY IN KAMI'S NAME WAS HIS MINDSCAPE A FREAKING SEWER!

"Hehehe, silly human." Naruto heard the Kyuubi's voice echoing through the empty stone walls. For some reason, it filled Naruto with rage how the Kyuubi was laughing at him. The fox was locked in a cage inside a 'weak human', as Kyuubi liked to put it, and still he had the tenacity to laugh at Naruto? Someone was going to pay.

"Shut up, stupid fox!" Naruto yelled at the monstrous demon fox, which ignored him in favor of chuckling at him. "Hey, I said shut up!" Naruto tried again, still ignored. "SHUT UP YOU UNGODLY FURBALL!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs, his only response being a twitch of the fox's ear as Naruto sighed and sat down, focusing his mind on the task of silencing the fox's laughter.

"It's not so fun when it happens to you, is it?" The Kyuubi asked, disturbing Naruto from his meditation.

"What are you talking about; I don't going around laughing at you, and disturbing your rest." Naruto growled out through gritted teeth.

"No, but for the last two weeks all I've heard is 'sniff, sniff, my friend is dead, wahhhh!'" Kyuubi snarled out, glaring at Naruto who, despite himself, took a step back at the hatred being shot at him.

"Well, what do you want me to do; I had to kill one of my friends. I'm not like you, demon fox, who can just kill and get over it instantly. I'm a human, I grieve." Naruto shouted back, only for the fox to huff, the burst of air, sending Naruto's jacket fluttering.

"Hardly; you knew her for maybe three days, I'd hardly call that a close friend. Now if it was that Hyuuga girl, or maybe your other teammate, the Uchiha, you could be justified. And I can get over it because it's the same as killing bugs to you ningen. I don't have any friend, so I will never have the problem of grieving for someone close to me. Now get over your stupid, pointless self-pity!" Kyuubi roared as the bars on the cage rattled but held up to the rage of the nine-tailed Bijuu.

"Shut up, stupid fox, you don't have any friends because no one would want to be friends with you! And I _did_ almost get Sasuke killed, so there, I have a reason to grieve." Naruto said childishly, and the Kyuubi couldn't help sweat-dropping at that.

"But he didn't die, you saved him. What idiotic creature cries when they save someone? Honestly, I couldn't live with myself if I cried over every little thing." Kyuubi said offhand. He turned to leave, only to have to send one final dig at Naruto as his body vanished into the shadows, his voice echoing throughout the chamber.

"You cry because one person you knew for three days died; Sasuke had his entire family killed by his older brother, yet you don't see him going around sobbing about it. No, he's made a vow to grow strong enough to avenge his clan; perhaps you would do well to do likewise." Kyuubi went silent at that, and for all his intelligence, Naruto couldn't think of a comeback to that. He went silent as well, contemplating the fox's words.

"He's right. Sasuke will forsake everything to get stronger, his history shows that. I won't be the same, but no more crying over death. I am a shinobi, death is our bedmate and ever present watchman. To grieve over such a thing is weakness, and I will never be weak in their eyes again. I am Naruto Uzumaki, and I will protect my precious people, no matter the cost to myself!" Naruto roared as he ran from the chamber, never noticing the light chuckle the Kyuubi gave as he left, and the room faded away.

"Why are you so alike, Old Man, Kit? What is it that makes you special, Naruto Uzumaki…Namikaze?" Kyuubi mumbled as his tails shrouded him.

Naruto came to as Hinata was shaking him, trying to awaken him.

"Hnn, leave it to the Dobe to fall asleep during our Chunnin Exams. Oh well, at least we didn't fail." Sasuke said, glaring at Naruto, who returned the glare in equal force, catching Sasuke off guard.

"Naruto-kun, come on, we have to hurry to Training Ground 44. If we're late, we'll be disqualified." Hinata said worriedly, and Naruto groaned, stretching himself out and releasing the coiled tension in his body.

"No, I'm done being the one watching other's back, now; Team 7 will lead the way through Hell!" Naruto said, clenching his fist as he held it out, Sasuke sighing before bumping fists, Hinata looking between the two rivals before her fist joined them, and the three sped off, chasing down the eligible Genin teams.

**A/N: Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. We have, this chapter, our first glimpse at one of the events of the Wave Arc. Now, next chapter will be the entire Forest of death test, so the chapter may run a bit long. Now then, I'm going to try and get to the Prelims as soon as possible because that's where the fun really starts flaring up.**


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